His crowning achievement was bringing his arrangement of "Oh Happy Day," originally an 18th Century ... created a new model for gospel music. It opened the door for artists like Aretha Franklin ...

Edwin Hawkins' "Oh Happy Day" was an accidental hit ... "It gave people the idea of doing more with gospel music," Lawrence says. "Meaning that they didn't limit it to what was considered a ...

I was hearing these different harmonies from these different genres of music, and there developed the sound of Edwin Hawkins.” The group recorded “Oh Happy Day” as part of an album entitled ...

Their music became the soundtrack of my life. But the Sensational Nightingales never sounded like this. “Oh Happy Day” had that throbbing, stuttering, 4/4 beat, the syncopated “He taught me ...

Hawkins won four Grammys over the course of his career and is credited with pioneering the contemporary gospel music genre. He blended gospel hymns with a secular sound and "Oh Happy Day" was the ...

Music, composed by ’80s U.K. pop idol Rick ... hotcakes when the white crowds come out of the theaters singing “Oh Happy Day.” ...

(AP) — Along with Andrae Crouch, James Cleveland and a handful of others, Hawkins was credited as a founder of modern gospel music. NEW YORK (AP) — Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known ...

“Oh Happy Day!” is another high-concept inquest on ... rules established upfront before plunging in (Lawrence’s music could also grow into a fuller score). As in “Ain’t No Mo ...

Grammy winner Edwin Hawkins, the gospel star best known for the crossover hit “Oh Happy Day,” has died. Hawkins died early Monday (Jan. 15) at his home in Pleasanton, California.